Israel has reportedly struck a preemptive tone this week, warning Iran that it will attack any arms shipments traveling to Syria under the guise of international aid after a catastrophic earthquake struck Turkey and Syria this week.
Rescue teams are still pulling people trapped under the rubble as international help continues to arrive. An estimated 22,000 people have died since the 7.8-magnitude quake hit the region four days ago, according to reports on Friday.
However, the crisis has Israeli security officials concerned that Iran will use the devastating event to funnel weapons to the Hezbollah terror group, which it has supported since its inception in the early 1980s.
A devastating earthquake struck Syria on February 6. (AP Photo)
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“There is information indicating that Iran will take advantage of the tragic situation in Syria and, under the cover of humanitarian aid, will send weapons and equipment to Hezbollah,” an anonymous Israeli military official told the Saudi newspaper Elaph on Wednesday.
The anonymous official reportedly told the publication that Israel is “ready to attack any equipment or weapon anywhere within Syrian territory.”
Fox News Digital was unable to independently verify whether Iran has taken steps to funnel weapons to Syria under the guise of aid, although a reporter for the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation posted on Twitter a video Thursday of “pro-Iranian militias in Iraq”. traveling in a convoy to deliver “aid… to the victims of the earthquake in Syria.”
In a separate video on Friday, the reporter released footage of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander, Brig. General Esmail Qaani, who was allegedly seen in the western Syrian city of Latakia “to monitor aid to those affected by the earthquake”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Commander, Brig. General Esmail Qaani speaks at a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the death of a Quds Force commander in Tehran, on December 20, 2022. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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He also reportedly met with the local governor.
Israeli intelligence and security expert, Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, now a senior fellow at the Israel Defense Security Forum, told Fox News Digital that “Iran has used humanitarian disasters in the past to clandestinely and illegally transport weapons and may well try to to use this humanitarian disaster in Syria”. as a decoy to transport additional advanced weapons systems to Syria.”
Kuperwasser said Tehran would most likely seek to send advanced air defense batteries, loitering munitions such as “kamikaze drones” and long-range missile components.
Iran and Israel have long been engaged in a proxy war in Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011, and clandestine operations across the Middle East have been commonplace.
Syrian men walk on a street between destroyed buildings where triple bombs exploded in Saadallah al-Jabri square, in Aleppo, Syria, on October 3, 2012. Entire blocks of apartment buildings were destroyed during Syria’s deadly civil war. (AP Photo/SANA)
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However, the regional devastation from the earthquake could allow Iran to expand its support for forces in Syria and beyond.
“Iran continues to exploit Syria’s weakness and dependence on foreign assistance to further Iran’s strategy of regional dominance and weapons deployment near Israel,” Kuperwasser said. “It must be clear to the world that Iran is a global disruptor and a threat that concerns not only Israel or the Middle East.”
